Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) want to get to the bottom of the global financial crisis and are proposing the creation of a select committee to probe the origins and impact of the wave of woe hitting the U.S. economy.

The pair will introduce a bill Tuesday that would create a “Senate Select Committee on the Financial Crisis” to “fully investigate the causes of the financial crisis and make recommendations to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude does not happen again in the future,” according to a joint statement released late Monday.

The senators, who will formally unveil their plan at a 3 p.m. press conference, say the new committee is needed to “restore the confidence of the American people in the economy.”

McCain and Dorgan, who collaborated on a bipartisan probe into lobbyist Jack Abramoff, would invest the committee with subpoena power and charge it with investigating a broad range of issues ranging from the foreclosure crisis to the use – and misuse – of funds from the $700 billion bank bailout.

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It’s not clear how the creation of a select committee, which is created by resolution to last for a specified period of time, would sit with Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairmen of the Senate Banking and Finance committees, respectively.